In my view painting, like music and dance, should be about beauty, pleasure and feeling good. To this end the painter composes shapes, colors, lines, form and space in ways to look attractive and if the painter chooses a good looking subject then so much the better. I have chosen the figure as my subject because it is as beautiful and as challenging as anything found in nature or in the imagination. It has been handsomely represented by the major artists of every age and yet no matter how many ways it has been portrayed there still remain countless original interpretations to express the figure’s special beauty.


Rip Matteson has been a member of the Carmel Art Association since 1950 and besides the figure, does landscapes and still life arrangements. He is also a cartoonist with work published in Punch, Playboy, The New Yorker and other magazines.


Images are samples of the artist’s work.
For current work on display and for sale please contact the gallery.